Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/381

M EXICO. 341 confess that I cannot but regard it as likely to acquire great and lasting importance. It can be checked by nothing but the most injudicious legislative interference, on the part of the Mexican Govern- ment ; and this I see no reason, at present, to apprehend; for, however ill-judged many parts of the present system may be, there has been a gradual tendency towards improvement, during the last three years, which augurs well for the future, and warrants the expectation of a better order of things. This brings me to the third and last subject of enquiry, viz. : — " The present system with regard to Foreign Trade, and the ameliorations of which it is susceptible."" The duties on Exports and Imports, in all the ports of Mexico, are founded upon a Tariff, estabhshed by the Junta Suprema Gubernativa, (or First Independent Government,) in January 1822, but modified in some points, by subsequent acts of Congress. According to this Tariff, a customs duty of twenty-five per cent, was made payable on all kinds of goods from all coun- tries ; which duty was to be paid upon a value .assigned to each separate article by the Tariff, calculated upon the prices that had existed during the monopoly of the Mother-country. Besides the Customs, there was a sort of Excise paid in the towns where the various articles were consumed, under the de- nomination of Alcavala, the average amount of which was twelve per cent, although on wines and brandies it was thirty-five and forty per cent. There were, also, certain Municipal duties levied in the inland towns by the Ayuntamientos, or Corpora- tions, which, however, seldom exceeded one and a half per cent. Both the Alcavalas, (which belonged to the National Treasury,) and the Municipal duties, were abolished by the law of the 4th of August, 1824, by which the revenues of the Federation were classed; and, in lieu of them, a duty of Fifteen per cent, on all goods forwarded from the ports into the Interior, was established, {Derecho de inter nacion,) while